O saber local e a prática científica : análise das relações entre mateiros e pesquisadores em Pernambuco

Abstract

The ethnoecology has contributed significantly in the joints between the local and scientific knowledges. In this study, it was used an approach ethnoecology to assess the implications of participation of "woodsmen" collaborators in scientific practice, in a way that a feasible understanding of the knowledge intersection (the scientific and nonscientific) in the relationship between researcher and woodsman can contribute to a positive dialogue for the science construction. The recognition of local knowledge and its relation to scientific knowledge are discussed here, from reports given by researchers and woodsmen through semi-structured interviews in oral history. For the analysis and systematization of the data it was used the content analysis technique thematic-categorical. The woodsman was defined and characterized by researchers as an essential agent for the field work development in forest environments. Compared by a researcher as a “great walking library", this collaborator, "shaped in the nature" according to respondents' reports, acts in research works developing multiple tasks (guidance in the forest, plant and animal species identification, plots assembly, information about natural history, among others). Although researchers recognize the cognitive woodsmen skills, the knowledge expressed by local informants often was not considered as a reliable information source for researchers who hired their services. It was feasible to verify that the researcher is who, through contact and experience in research work and forest inventories, gives the status of woodsman, issuance the woodsman title. The woodsman often not recognized himself as a woodsman, showing instability in his profession. It was indicated by the interviewed groups a tendency of these local informants to fall way, either by lack of interest among the younger generations to become woodsmen, or by the natural environments decreases. The parataxonomists formation was commented by more than 50% of the researchers and was appointed by them as an excellent support tool in forest research. The interaction analysis performed in this study helps in the understanding of knowledge production means and may enlighten important technical and social aspects to the science. In this sense, it is suggested to conduct researches and other measures to allow woodsmen express their own relationships with the scientific knowledge and with certain processes and structures from the natural world said. Thus, a more symmetric view from the two knowledge kinds might be contemplated, in order to contribute to respect for different ways of knowing and their uses, including in the context of Forest Science. Each knowledge kind has its purpose, but both knowledges can influence and relate to each other.